Every day was a very present reminder that this physical barrier has created a deep division in how we perceive and interact with each other.
Harnessing Wild Yeast: How to make your own Fruit Alcohol (Hooch)
Fruit alcohol, or what we like to call hooch, is a great way to use an abundance of seasonal fruit and transform it into a tasty alcoholic treat. With a community of 15 plus people here, we can drink a fair amount of alcohol, and being able to make it ourselves allows us to know the ingredients, process, who is benefiting from it, and save a lot of money!
TROPICAL FRUITS: knowin’ em, eatin’ em, and pickin’ em
Fruits and vegetables have not always existed in the way we know them today. Farmers, the agriculture industry, and plant scientists have taken native plants and reshaped them into the crops we now consume in our daily diets. This has happened over time for a variety of reasons. In some cases it was to improve their palatability, in others to make them easier to grow, harvest, or eat. For better or for worse, the produce we grow in our home gardens or purchase at farmer’s markets, grocery stores, and CSA boxes have developed alongside us for centuries.
Tips on how to put together a plastering practice board
Have you ever heard of natural plasters? If not, check Rancho Mastatal Natural Building course. Maybe you attended a course somewhere or had an enjoyable experience with some friends helping them at their natural home project or maybe you have seen some videos online.
Tadelakt - Water Resistant Lime Plaster
Simply defined Tadelakt is a type of polished lime plaster. Many cultures around the world have polished lime plaster, but none have captured the imagination in the way that Tadelakt has. At the Ranch we offer a variety of day workshops and our Tadelakt day workshop is by far one of the most popular natural building options.
Rancho Spa-Statal: Finding Balance and Pleasure in a Life on the Farm
A day here can be very physically demanding: cutting bamboo, hauling bananas, and moving piles of sand and clay. I have learned that building a community and living in alignment with the Earth require sweat and persistence. But the Ranch has also taught me that finding healthy ways to relax and have fun is equally important for finding balance. If a community is going to last, you have to find ways to laugh and spark joy in any situation.
Life Lessons From Moving Piles
There are piles of sand and clay ready to be formed into adobe bricks or wattle and daub mix, piles of starfruit and lemons waiting to be fermented, stacks of bamboo waiting for the next bamboo construction workshop, piles of green papaya anticipating its second life as kimchi, piles and piles of knowledge held in peoples brains, piles of books filling up the library waiting for the next curious mind, piles of manure, compost piles, worm piles, piles and piles of piles.
Fruity Ferments- How to Make Fruit Scrap Vinegar
You can make fruit vinegars from all kinds of different local, seasonal fruits. Using the scraps from the fruits (i.e. the peel and extra bits) is a way to value the marginal (permaculture principle) and turn a “waste” product into something of purpose.
Enriching Community Soil: 5 Simple Strategies That Support Sustainable Relationships
Water Kefir - The New Kombucha!
Before coming to the Ranch, I only knew of kefir as a tasty, sour, probiotic milk product - almost like a liquid yogurt. I loved it, and knew of it’s health benefits, but didn’t think kefir could be anything more. Turns out, kefir can refer to both milk kefir, the product I’ve known and seen in grocery stores, and water kefir, a delicious fermented soda and a staple for us here at Rancho.
Nitrogen Fixing Plants at Rancho Mastatal
The Magical Benefits of Fasting
What is Lacto-Fermentation
Farm to Table Chocolate Bonbons
Bioconstrucción en Rancho Mastatal: respuestas cercanas a peguntas pertinentes
Llegar a un curso de bioconstrucción es una señal. Quien busca el conocimiento teórico y práctico en este campo, probablemente haya empezado a transitar un camino hacia el cambio de mentalidad y forma de vida; posiblemente muy pocas personas que aterricen en un curso de este tipo lo harán por azar y la mayoría lo hará como consciente consecuencia de su inclinación por un cambio de paradigma, de estilo de vida, por la búsqueda de coherencia entre el discurso y la práctica. Este fue nuestro caso.
Natural Log Cultivation of Shiitake Mushrooms in the Tropics
Even though growing shiitake in bags of synthetic logs is more common due to labor and material costs for bigger scale production, we decided to go for the traditional natural log cultivation, as it has been grown for thousands of years. So if you’re thinking about starting mushroom cultivation, here are a few tips on how to do it:
Life of Spice: Farm to Table Cinnamon
Eating Local: Reconnecting to Food
Food nourishes us and forms the heart of our community. Understanding where it comes from, how it is grown, and who has grown it helps us value our food in a way that we have lost in the modern era. We can get overwhelmed by the challenges of the modern world and food can provide us with some of the easiest and most accessible ways that we can begin to regenerate our planet.
Farm to Table Permaculture Pizza
Being a permaculture and sustainable education centre, we try to source as many of our ingredients either directly from the farm itself, or from the local community. Some parts of the pizza are easy to source locally, others not so much. This has come to pose a few challenges at times, and often we make some compromises for the sake of indulgence.
Endeavors to End Propane: Local Fuel Sources and Efficient Cooking Technologies
Cooking food can make it tastier, easier to digest and absorb nutrients, and safer and healthier to eat. Cooking at the Ranch happens multiple times a day, and on some days, pretty continuously throughout the day. We generally have a lot of hungry bellies to fill! Over the decades we have been steadily reducing our use of propane to meet our cooking needs.